1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to mechanical guns and projectors, and more specifically to magnetic couplings which offer improved interaction with and operation of paint ball guns. In specific manifestations, magnetic couplings are provided for paint ball indexing, gas valve coupling, magnetically coupled bolts, and custom triggers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Paint ball guns have enjoyed much popularity for a number of years. The sport offers the challenge and intrigue of competitions and battles that stimulate a person's consciousness. However, unlike actual wars, hunts and the like, the combatants may return day after day to continue to test and refine their skills.
In a paint ball competition, the paint balls themselves are designed to be propelled by a gun which uses pressurized gas as the propellant. The paint ball is designed to withstand normal movements inside of the gun, while being sufficiently frangible to break upon impact, subsequent to being propelled. When the paint ball strikes a competitor, it will break and mark the person who has been hit. Consequently, the ball must also be sufficiently soft to not cause harm to the person, though it is understood that in most competitions the person will be wearing basic protective gear such as goggles and the like to protect body parts which would otherwise be too easily harmed.
Modern paint balls are typically comprised of gelatinous compounds which offer both the necessary toughness to survive gun use and the rupture strengths that are low enough to lead to breakage on impact. Unfortunately, it is also known that many factors can affect the characteristics of the paint ball outer membrane, including but not limited to such diverse factors as temperature, humidity, manufacturing tolerances, production or post-production handling, and the like.
Since the paint ball must be sufficiently soft and frangible to not harm the competitors, and to reliably break upon impact, and since there are unpredictable factors that may weaken the ball, a paint ball gun must be designed to handle the paint balls as gently as possible. Otherwise, paint balls may break inside the gun, even prior to firing. When a paint ball does break, the gun may be disabled until the competitor cleans out both the paint and the gelatin capsule. When this occurs deep inside the gun, the time required for cleaning may be too great, leaving the competitor defenseless against another competitor. Consequently, it is highly desirable to have the most reliable handling of paint balls within the gun possible.
A typical paint ball gun must receive a single paint ball and position the ball into the breech. Subsequently, the gun will expel the ball using a blast of pressurized gas. The source of paint balls is typically a magazine, which will hold a plurality of paint balls therein. The magazine in turn couples to the gun just ahead of a bolt, and typically at an angle offset from parallel to the gun barrel.
To ensure a single paint ball is placed into the breech, a bolt travels parallel to the gun barrel, and in a first position permits a single paint ball to pass down into the path parallel to the barrel. Next, the bolt will travel forward, both moving the paint ball forward into the breech and simultaneously blocking the passage of any additional paint balls from the magazine into the barrel region. The bolt additionally blocks back-flow of propellant into the magazine feed path. This handling of the paint ball by the bolt is one of several critical controlled movements that are made by a paint ball gun, often in very small fractions of a second.
In order to prevent more than one paint ball from being loaded into the breech per cycle, or from simply rolling out of the barrel accidentally, some type of barrel restriction is typically applied. Exemplary apparatus include rings within the barrel that are smaller than diameter of the paint ball, elastomer and polymer projections into the paint ball path, and barrel sections selectable based upon paint ball size to properly compress the paint ball during firing. The use of a spring-button cartridge for holding paint balls in place in the barrel is exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,538 by Ellis, entitled “Electronically actuated marking pellet projector”, the teachings which are incorporated herein by reference. Patents which illustrate other related devices, the teachings which are incorporated herein by reference, include U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,878 by Wittbrot, entitled “Device for holding spherical projectiles”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,778 by Kostsiopoulos, entitled “Semi-Automatic firing compressed gas gun”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,838 by Anderson, entitled “Paint ball gun”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,080 by Sullivan, Jr., entitled “Paint ball gun barrel with multiple compression zones”; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,516,791 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,520,172 by Perrone.
In addition to the proper handling of paint balls, it is also highly desirable to provide other reliable mechanisms within the gun, which may preferably be customized easily and, where practical, without tools.